Austrian court rules against extradition of Ukrainian businessman to US over alleged bribery

VIENNA — An Austrian appeals court has rejected a request to extradite Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash to the United States in a case of alleged corruption through a plot to pay bribes in India.

The Vienna high regional court dismissed the appeal of a lower court ruling last year in the long-running legal saga. The high court said its decision announced on Dec. 10 was final.

Firtash faces a U.S. indictment accusing him of a conspiracy to pay bribes in India to mine titanium, which is used in jet engines. He has denied any wrongdoing.

The Vienna court said the extradition request was related to the payment of bribes in the tens of millions of euros (dollars) for mining licenses in India, but ruled it was “inadmissible because of immunity under international law.”

Robert Kert, a professor at the Institute for Austrian and European Economic Criminal Law, said the ruling was not a substantive decision but more of a formality following the lower court's verdict last year.

He said prosecutors missed the deadline to file their appeal against Firtash, who had claimed diplomatic immunity as a one-time representative of Belarus to international institutions in Vienna.

"I have the impression the interest in seeing Mr. Firtash extradited is not that big," Kert said Monday by phone.

Six years ago, a Chicago federal judge rejected a motion to dismiss the indictment against Firtash, who has argued that the U.S. has no jurisdiction over crimes in India. However, the judge ruled that it does, because any scheme would have impacted a Chicago-based company.

American aviation company Boeing, based in Chicago, has said it considered business with Firtash but never followed through. It is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Firtash was arrested in Austria in 2014, and then freed on 125 million euros ($131 million) bail, kicking off the ongoing legal saga. A Vienna court initially ruled against extradition on the grounds that the indictment was politically motivated.

A higher court in February 2017 rejected that reasoning as “insufficiently substantiated” and ruled that Firtash could be extradited. Austria’s Supreme Court of Justice upheld that ruling in 2019.